morgue – room where dead bodies are kept temporarily e.g. in a hospital

consecrated ground – ground which has been declared holy and is suitable for religious use

Answer this…

Which two noteworthy people are buried at this site?

Transcript

Back in the 1780s, London was running out of space. It had nowhere for the dead. And so, it created new cemeteries. One of them is here next to Euston Station. And now, more than 200 years later, that land is needed for another purpose. The dead are going to have to find a new final resting place.

And this is the reason why: this is where London's high-speed railway station is about to be built. And so, a small army of archaeologists have arrived to move thousands of bodies.

Caroline Raynor, project managerSo the records for the entire area suggest around sixty thousand people were interred in the cemetery.

But what will happen to all the bodies? Matthew Flinders, the first man to sail around Australia, is buried here. So too is Bill Richmond, one of Britain's most celebrated boxers.

Helen Wass, HS2 Archaeology Initially, they will be taken for archaeological analysis – so, laboratories. They'll be stored in a morgue, and again, that's with the agreement of the church.

And then after that, everyone will be re-buried in consecratedground – and this is just the beginning.

Helen Wass, HS2 Archaeology Overall, on the whole line during the peak, we're going to have over 1000 archaeologists excavating over 60 sites. It's the biggest archaeological investigation ever undertaken in the UK, and probably Europe.

In this part of London, any development is always going to be building on history. But this one has rather more ghosts than normal.

Did you get it?Which two noteworthy people are buried at this site?

Matthew Flinders, the first man to sail around Australia, and Bill Richmond, one of Britain's most celebrated boxers, are buried here.

Did you know?According to a 2016 YouGov poll, 58% of UK adults would prefer to be cremated whereas only 17% would choose to be buried. 20% were not sure and 5% would choose 'something else'.